Bodies from victims of the Thirty Years’ War and the Silesian Wars adorn the Czermna Chapel in Poland. Built in 1176 by a local priest, bones surround visitors on the walls, and stretching in skull and crossbones over the ceiling- only they are real bones and not pirate décor. Builders of the chapel are especially honored- their skills can be found in the center of the chapel and placed on the altar.
+ Czermna Chapel

Rome’s Our Lady of the Conception of the Capuchins is decorated with the remains of over 4,000 friars who died between 1500 and 1870. Once visited by the Marquis de Sade, the bones are arranged in Baroque and Rococo style. The skeletons of three friars, resembling Macabre himself, greet visitors to the church.

Inspired by Our Lady of the Conception, the Sedlec Ossuary is a small chapel in a suburb in the Czech Republic. The bone chilling chandeliers (made from every bone in the human body), skull lined arches and pyramids are made from 40,000-70,000 skeletons. A half blind monk stacked the bones into pyramids in 1511, but woodcarver Frantisek Rint was commissioned by the Schwarzenberg family to redesign the bones 1870. Rint also designed the Schwarzenberg coat of arms near the entrance.